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A long letter, written with the guidance of HaRav Eliashiv zt"l was sent in the winter of 5728, after the Six Day War, to the then Defense Minister. It is relevant today as then.
Excerpts: "Of late, certain circles have begun undermining the status of Torah students, masking their true objectives through a pose of desiring the welfare of the State. It is clear, however, that the good of the State is not their objective. Their true motive is not welcome, to say the least, for any thinking person can understand this.
"Tell me, Honorable Minister, how is it that the Jewish People, who have experienced so many adversities and hardships since the Churban have survived? Which nation could have remained in existence after having been through so many difficulties? We see in world history that many nations which have suffered as little as one percent as us, have not survived and yet, Jewry remains standing in all its glory, splendor and brilliance.
"What is the reason for this? There is only one answer. Throughout its tribulations, beaten and downtrodden in body, we remained unscathed in spirit. Jewry was staunch like an adamant rock against the jaws of wickedness and evil.
Rabbi Avraham Lipshitz from the Religious Zionists, a Rosh Mesivta in one of the Torah institutions of the sector to which he belongs, presents several critical questions to that selfsame camp to which he is affiliated. According to his testimony, to date, he has not received any answers to the questions which he enumerates.
He begins with several familiar sayings which are aired out morning after morning from his camp in various versions: "The public will not forgive those Knesset representatives who vote for the `Law of Army Dodging'" ; "Prove that you are not lackeys of the Chareidim"; "In the long run, they will not be drafted for the next hundred years" and "Only through coercion".
And he writes: "To my great dismay, it succeeded. All of those acerbic sentences circulating in our midst for the past two years (and those quoted were among the milder ones) achieved their purpose. Their aim was one: to put pressure on the National Religious representatives not to come to agreements with the chareidim regarding the draft. The efforts included weekly ads in the free publications, the reminders from the Tanach about the mitzvos of war which were actually directed at the chareidim.
But their object was identical: to put pressure on the N.R. Knesset representatives. And after all, this pressure proved successful and the chareidim left the government.
I would like to stop for a moment and ask some questions to our holy and so dear public, questions which have been disturbing and dismaying me a lot and for a long time.
He begins by hailing the value of army service as his camp views it, as an important mitzvah. But then he presents his critical questions: "But wait a moment. Since when does the path of realizing our longstanding dream of seeing the entire Jewish people as our partners in mitzvos wend through coercion, force, sanctions, sharp and abusing expressions against those who are not partners with us in this?
Part I
This was originally published in the English edition of Yated Ne'eman in 1993, that is, 32 years ago.
If we should learn the Mishnah and gemara in Taanis, telling us what we are not permitted to do during these days leading up to Tisha B'Av, and if we will subsequently learn the Shulchan Oruch, we will literally not recognize the gemara and the Mishnah any longer. I mean, that many many halachos have been added by Klal Yisroel throughout the generations since Chazal hakedoshim originally set down the halachos of shavua shechal bo Tisha B'Av.
There is no mention in the gemara of the general inyan of the Three Weeks from Shiva Asar BeTammuz until Tisha B'Av, with special restrictive halachos. From Rosh Chodesh Av the gemara says mema'atim besimchah, we do not make festivities. We don't purchase things which are not necessities, or luxuries; we don't get married during those days. Shavua shechal bo Tisha B'Av, the week in which Tisha B'Av takes place (that isn't from Rosh Chodesh, since the ninth day of the month is always in the second week), the Mishnah tells that we should not cut our hair and we should not launder our clothing. Nothing more.
Great changes have taken place inhilchos Tisha B'Av. We do not bathe in the Nine Days. That's not the Shavua, that's from Rosh Chodesh Av: nine full days. Plus many other chumros: we don't drink wine; we don't eat meat. None of this is mentioned in the gemara. The only mention about not eating meat or drinking wine is in the last seuda just before Tisha B'Av.
What Is In A Chumra?
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Opinion & Commen
"And you shall appoint for you cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the slayer who kills any person unaware may flee there. And the cities which you shall give shall be six cities for refuge. You shall give three cities on this side of the Jordan and three cities shall you give in the land of Canaan."
Rashi quotes the words of the gemora in Makkos: "Even though there were nine tribes in the land of Canaan and only two and a half tribes across the Jordan, yet the number of cities of refuge was equal on both sides, since in Gilad, across the Jordan, there were many murderers, as it is written, `Gilad, a city of evildoers, filled with blood.'"
The Ramban asks, "But were these cities of refuge not appointed for manslaughterers, that is, those who killed inadvertently, and not premeditatedly? If so, how can one determine that there were many murderers in Gilad merely by the fact of the equal number of cities of refuge? Can incidents of manslaughter be predicted in advance? And if it happened to be true that more deaths by man-accident did occur, does this, then, testify that it was a city of bloodshed?"
The Maharal writes in Gur Arye as follows: "But it seems to me that the one who did kill by accident should have been more circumspect and not come to kill. This is why he is punished by exile, for if not, why indeed should he be forced to leave his home? What has he done to deserve this exile? He should have been careful! He should not have been the cause of another's death! And since there were many murderers in Gilad, no one, not even the best of folk, were careful or took safety precautions to preserve life by not causing accidental killings. It follows that just like there were many planned and intentional murders, so were there many accidental deaths caused by negligence and lack of precaution, a lack of sufficient awareness for the sanctity of life. This is why it was necessary to have a disproportionate number of orei miklot."
A high incidence of fatalities, even by accident, is no mere coincidence. ...
Opinion & Comment
Following are excerpts from several shmuessen delivered last year during Sivan and Tammuz before talmidim in Yeshivas Kol Torah in Yerushalayim. It was prepared for publication by an independent listener (and not by HaRav Deutsch).
Part I
Yirmiyohu the novi laments (9:11-12), "Who is the wise man who may understand this, and who is he to whom the mouth of Hashem has spoken, that he may declare it? Why did the land perish, and is burned up like a wilderness that none passes through? And Hashem says, `Because they have forsaken My Torah which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked therein, but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Ba'alim, as their fathers taught them.'"
The gemora (Nedorim 81a) writes, "The sages and nevi'im were asked [what `nor walked therein' means], but they could not explain it, until HaKodosh Boruch Hu Himself explained that [the Jews at the time of the churban] did not make a brocho on the Torah before they studied it." The rishonim revealed to us the depth of this sin, one that the sages and nevi'im at the time of the churban could not grasp. See the Ran (ibid.) in the name of Rabbenu Yonah, who interprets the sin as being that the Torah was not sufficiently important for them to make a brocho on it.
The Rambam seems to rule that bircas HaTorah is derabonon, since he does not cite bircas HaTorah in his Sefer Hamitzvos. The Shaagas Arye (chap. 24) asks that from the above gemora we can infer that bircas HaTorah is mideOraisa. If it were derabonon, having been initiated by the Anshei Knesses Hagedola who lived several generations after Yirmiyohu, it would have been impossible for it to have any connection to the churban. If, on the other hand, bircas HaTorah is mideOraisa, Jews were obligated to say it long before the destruction.
This kushya on the Rambam can be resolved, since the Rambam had another way of interpreting the above-mentioned gemora. In Teshuvos Pe'er Hador the Rambam himself writes that at the time of the churban, "even if there were several talmidei chachomim in the beis knesses, [those present] would give an aliya to a Cohen who was an am ha'aretz or who was lesser than they in wisdom . . . and [by doing so] they caused this [churban], since they diminished the honor of a talmid chochom and those who study the Torah."
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